A.C. Ryan Modding Products

Modding has come a long way from when I first put in a window in my case a few years ago. A.C. Ryan is a company that has tons of nice items for any serious (and causal for that matter) modder, and we’ve taken a look at some of those items.

Introduction

Modding has come a long way from when I first put in a window in my case a few years ago. Today, windows are pretty standard on most cases, and people are concentrating on making the stuff inside look cool instead. A.C. Ryan is a company that has tons of nice items for any serious (and causal for that matter) modder, and we’ve taken a look at some of those items.

The Products

We decided to put together this overview article instead of trying to review every little item separately.

The products we are looking at today are:

• Connectx™ Kit Deluxe, UVRed – This kit includes all you need to mod all the connectors in your computer.
• Conductx™ DIY Kit Chain-Your-Drive™, UVblue
• FlexSleeve™ Kit UVblue – Sleeve up your cables.
• MORF™ psu modding kit, UVBlue – Everything you need to mod all the cables from your PSU.
• Roundcables ATA133 60cm UVSilver – Rounded ATA-cable with UV-Active particles.
• Backy™ Combo, UVBlue – Need access to molex and fan power outside the case? Then backy is the thing for you.
• SATA cable 50cm GREENEON – Tired of your boring SATA cable. Then this cool SATA cable is for you.

A.C Ryan has a lot more mod-stuff, and I suggest you visit their site to check them all out.

Connectx™ Kit Deluxe, UVRed

Imagine you have worked hard to put UV-active sleeves around your cables, bought a motherboard and a video card with matching PCB-color and set up some nice UV-lights in the case. Still, when you turn on the light and look into your case, there probably is one thing that still isn’t right: the connectors. They probably still are white.

A.C.Ryan of course comes to the rescue here with their ConnectX kits. These kits include everything you need to exchange all the connectors in your case to one uniform UV-active color.

The kit is UV-active.

The kits include:

• 10 x 4-pin Molex Female Connectors
• 5 x 4-pin Molex Male Connectors
• 2 x 4-pin T-SATA Female Connectors
• 4 x 3-pin Fan Female Connectors
• 4 x 3-pin Fan Male Connectors
• 2 x 4-pin Floppy Connectors
• 1 x 20-pin ATX Connector
• 1 x 6-pin Auxillary Connector
• 1 x 4-pin 12v Pentium 4 Connector
• 1 x Toolx™ Pin Remover for Molex Universal (Male & Female)
• 1 x Toolx™ Pin Remover for ATX / P412V

As you might have noticed it is missing both a 24-pin ATX2.0 connector and a PCI-E power connector. I guess that is something that A.C.Ryan needs to update the kits with in the future.

The tool breaks easily if you are not carefull.

The 2 tools that are included are used for removing the pins in the various connectors. I noticed that the tool used for the ATX/P4 12 V connectors was pretty weak, and one of the tools I got actually broke even though I used little force.

Rating: 7.5/10

 

Conductx™ DIY Kit Chain-Your-Drive™, UVblue

This is the perfect kit for those of you who want to create your own kind of cable with UV-lights and all. The kit includes:

• 1.5m cable with Molex 4pin Male Connector (the other end open)
• 6x Connectx™ T-Molex Female connector
  ** (with 5x passthrough cap and 1x endcap)
• 3x Connectx™ T-SATA Female connector
  ** (with 2x passthrough cap and 1x endcap)
• 2m x FlexSleeve™ 6mm
• 50cm x HeatShrinkz™ 10mm
• 10x Cable Ties
• 6x UVLED

UVLEDs

There is a tiny read-me included on the package that gives you some info on how to connect the UVLeds. It also tells you to go to a page at www.acryan.com for more tips, but unfortunately that page is no longer active.

The biggest problem with this kit in my opinion is that they give you no visual information on how you can put the cables together and create your shining cable. I’m not that experienced with this type of modding, and it took me quite some time to put something together that worked and looked good, mainly because I had to figure it all out. This is not just a problem with this kit but a general problem with A.C.Ryan’s kits. If you are an experienced modder, these things probably are easy to put together, but I think it would help with some more instructions for the rest of us.

Rating 6.5/10

 

 

FlexSleeve™ Kit UVblue

I don’t know about you, but I find that the cables in my cases always keep hanging around, making the whole case look untidy.

A.C.Ryan has the perfect solution to this problem: the FlexSleeve Kit. This kit consists of:

• FlexSleeve™ 3mm (1/8″) : 3.3m (10ft) UVcolor
• FlexSleeve™ 6mm (1/4″) : 3.3m (10ft) UVcolor
• FlexSleeve™ 10mm (3/8″) : 1.6m (5ft) UVcolor
• FlexSleeve™ 13mm (1/2″) : 1.6m (5ft) UVcolor
• Heatshrink Tubing 10mm (3/8″) Black : 30cm (12″)
• Heatshrink Tubing 20mm (3/4″) Black : 30cm (12″)
• Heatshrink Tubing 25mm (1″) Black : 15cm (6″)
• Tie wraps : 10 pcs

FlexSleeve™ is a flexible netting will typically expand up to 50% of it’s diameter, allowing you to easily slide it over your cable bunch.

A pully on the ends and the FlexSleeve™ contracts to wrap your cable bunch snugly and neatly.

The proper way to use the heatshrink tubing

The included Heatshrink tubing can be used to finish the ends.

Rating: 8/10

MORF™ psu modding kit, UVGreen

The MORF kit is a complete kit with same-colored connectors and sleeves. The kit contains the following items:

• 4 types sleeving (2mm x 3.3, 6mm x 3.3m, 12mm x 1.6m, 13mm x 1.6m)
• 3 types heatshrink (10mm x 30cm, 20mm x 30cm, 25mm x 15cm)
• 10x Molex4pin Female Connectx
• 3x Floppy power Female Connectx
• 1x ATX20pin female Connectx
• 1xP4-12V 4pin Female Connectx
• 1x AUX6pin Female Connectx
• 10x Tie-wrap
• 1x Toolx Pin Remover Molex Universal
• 1x Toolx Pin Remover ATX / P4-12V Female

As with the ConnectX kit, this kit is missing the new 24-pin ATX2.0 connector and any PCI-E power connectors. I expect A.C.Ryan to include them in a not so distant future.

What you get in the MORPH-kit

The tools make it pretty easy to remove the pins from the connectors but the ATX/P4-12V remover tool is pretty fragile and should be handled with care so it doesn’t break. It also is used to remove the pins from both SATA connectors and the smaller floppy connectors.

Rating: 7/10

Round Cables – ATA133 60cm UVSilver

A.C-Ryan actually is one of the first companies that made rounded cables. Naturally, they still have lots of rounded calbe products, and the one I am looking at is a 60cm ATA133 cable.

So why should you get a rounded cable from A.C Ryan?

Twisted Pair
In a flat cable, a ground wire is lined next to each data wire to lower the electronic interference between the signals in each wire. This interference is one of the key deciding factors in the transmission speed that a cable is capable of. Instead of lining the ground and data wire next to each other, each pair of ground wire and data wire are twisted together in AC Ryan’s round cables. This improved design reduces the interference significantly, resulting also in the possibility of extending the cable to 90cm.

Protective Sleeving
The sleeve protects the cable from damage as well as wear and tear.

Movable Endcaps
The endcaps are designed to be movable so that the round cable can easily be twisted and rotated. Installing the AC Ryan roundcables is a breeeeeze!

Improved Airflow
Thick flat cables take up space and block the airflow. No matter how many fans you have to move the air, the air doesn’t go anywhere if they are blocked!!! Free up the clutter with roundc ables, and you will see immediately lower temperature with the better ventilation.

The cable I am testing is UV-active, and while this sample is a silver-color, there are a bunch of other colors available. In addition to the 45cm and 60cm versions, you can get these cables in 90cm versions to. That definitely should be long enough for everyone.

Backy™ Combo, UVBlue
 

Have you ever needed to access power outside your case? Maybe want to test a fan or need to power up some CCFl lights that are placed outside the case. Then Backy Combo will prove to be very useful for you.

This item is placed over a PCI-slot and hooked up to a molex connector. On the back, you find 2 molex connectors and 2 fan-connectors.

As expected, A.C. Ryan has made the cables and the connectors UV Active.

Backy is also available in a few other useful configurations:

• with 1 SATA data connector, 1 Molex connector and 1 fan connector
• with 1 ATA 133 data connector and 1 molex connector

Rating: 8/10

SATA cable 50cm GREENEON

Mod a SATA cable? I got to admit I was a bit skeptical at first and thought this was just another UV-active rounded SATA cable, but I was wrong. A.C. Ryan has put a XNEON lightwire inside the cable. The cable itself is translucent and spreads the light. When you hook up the cable, you also hook up a molex-connector to the PSU and voila: you got a cool SATA cable that glows in the dark without having to use a UV-light.

I got a 50cm version that has a green light, but I suggest getting a longer version simply because you can route the cable around the case to produce a cool effect. The cable has a rubber sleeving around it, which means it is much less fragile than normal SATA cables. A.C. Ryan also has put some silver shielding around it to protect it from EMI.

This is a very simple but effective way to mod the inside of your computer, and at around $12, it really isn’t that expensive either.

Rating: 9/10